Former RTE star Diana Bunici joins #MeToo: 'I was so naïve to the evil in the world - I was in denial about what was happening'

Diana BuniciHigh hopes: TV presenter Diana Bunici has written her first book on achieving your dreams, no matter what the obstacles are. Photo: Colin O'RiordanDiana Bunici. Photo: Dave ConachySteve Garrigan and Diana Bunici. Photo: VIP IRELANDDiana Bunici at the launch of Urban Decay Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection at Cleaver East, The Clarence Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoyDiana Bunici and her mother Maria at the 2015 People of the Year Awards organised by Rehab and held in RTE. Picture: Robbie Reynolds

Former RTE star Diana Bunici joins #MeToo: 'I was so naïve to the evil in the world - I was in denial about what was happening'

Independent.ie

Former RTE star Diana Bunici has opened up about an unsettling experience she had as part of the #MeToo movement, encouraging women to speak up and share their experiences of sexual assault and harassment.

Former RTE star Diana Bunici has opened up about an unsettling experience she had as part of the #MeToo movement, encouraging women to speak up and share their experiences of sexual assault and harassment.

Diana (29), who shot to prominence as a children's tv presenter on RTE Two, recalled being assaulted by a man sitting next to her on the bus when she was a teenager.

Diana Bunici. Photo: Dave Conachy

"There aren’t many people I’ve told about that day on the bus in Dublin City Centre when one of the happiest days of my life was turned upside down by the vile intentions of a horrendously entitled stranger sitting beside me," she wrote on her blog The Juicy Melon. "I was 19 years old and I’d just wrapped a promo shoot for a small project I had a tiny acting part in. As any young girl would be, I was excited to get home to tell my family about it. The bus was my mode of transport and I hopped on, arms loaded with bags of shoes and changes of clothes- our project had a tight budget and I must have taken half my wardrobe with me.

"Sliding into my seat, I popped my earphones in, happily reliving the day in my head as we inched closer and closer to the West side of Dublin I called home."

Bunici then detailed how the man sitting next to her began sliding his hand up her skirt and she said she was "muted with fear" when she realised what was happening.

"At some point along the journey, I remember him sitting down beside me and me scrambling to keep my bags to my side; pushing some under the seat in front and piling others on my lap. Nothing unusual here, just common courtesy on my behalf- we’ve all had our personal space invaded on public transport," she explained.

"Imagine my horror then, when a few minutes later I felt a hand move up my leg. My heart stopped and I thought perhaps I was imagining it. I shuffled in my seat, making a fuss to adjust the bags on my lap and to my relief the hand moved away. That’s him told, I thought. Until it happened again; and my body stiffened with fear and shock.

"Again, I felt his fingers creeping further and further up my thigh. I was wearing a jumper dress and the flimsy barrier of my tights did little to mask the unsettling warmth of his touch. I was so naïve to the evil in the world, I was in denial about what was happening. I remember wanting to scream, to turn to him and smack him, to shame him.

"But I was muted with fear. A shy, quiet teenager- I was terrified to make a scene. Instead, I shuffled in my seat again, gulping back tears. As expected, his hand retracted. Reaching for my phone, I decided I’d make a call. I blindly scrolled to find a loved one’s number but the hand was back again and it was getting dangerously close. Bewildered, I found the courage to smack him away sending him jumping to his feet and pressing the stop button," she added.

"It’s only when he walked off the bus sideways (like a crab) - even though the space was free - and stood with his back to the bus door facing a fence upon getting off, that I understood what had really happened."

High hopes: TV presenter Diana Bunici has written her first book on achieving your dreams, no matter what the obstacles are. Photo: Colin O'Riordan

The author of The Pursuit of Awesome said she has carried around feelings of shame for the last 10 years, saying she shared her story now because she feels her responsibility as young woman to "look out for other young women".

"That night I lay in bed and sobbed. I felt disgusting. I felt ashamed. I felt weak. And I felt scared. In other words, #metoo. For 10 years I kept this incident to myself because I was too uncomfortable to talk about it. It didn’t seem important to share because after all, compared to other people’s stories, mine was “mild”. Mild, however, doesn’t mean insignificant. Ignoring a mild incident and letting a perpetrator get away with it, gives power- power to do something so much more awful and horrific in the long run," she wrote.

"In light of recent news and escalating conversations, I feel it’s important to share my experience. As a young woman, I feel it’s my responsibility to look out for other young women. To let them know that they are not alone and that it’s not their fault; that they shouldn’t carry a guilt, fear and shame that was so unfairly subjected onto them. It's an every day occurrence and too often we bat a blind eye."

Diana currently divides her time between Dublin and London, where she shares apartments with her boyfriend, Kodaline frontman Steve Garrigan and works as a freelance journalist and broadcaster.